He couldn’t wait. Couldn’t wait to be with his guys. Back on a schedule. Battling for every play on the ice.
But it also meant he had to leave Faith. His first thought was to ask her if she’d continue seeing him, but Grant didn’t have to look at a schedule to know there would only be one short break over the next six months when he’d be able to fly here and see her. Nor did he have to fathom a guess of how often she’d be free to come see him. Not with a struggling store, limited funds and that damn iron pride of hers. He had no doubt they’d end up in a fight if he even brought up the subject of paying for her travel. Beyond that, she hadn’t shown any serious interest in hockey. She listened to him talk about his career and his buddies, but when he started talking strategy, her eyes glazed over.
Not that it mattered... Did it?
“Why in the hell am I even thinking these things?” he asked the empty car.
After a moment, his mind answered: Because he knew that by June, when he could come spend the summer with her, she’d be gone. If not physically gone because she’d sold the store, she’d be taken by some young stud who knew a good thing when he saw it.
Grant’s chest tightened uncomfortably, and his mood plummeted. The discomfort only added to his stress. He shouldn’t be this affected by a woman he’d known for a week and a half. That was ludicrous.
He pulled into a spot in front of Faith’s store, while his brother pulled in a block away at the bar. Grant cut the engine and the lights and stared inside at the light glowing in the back. He wanted to bail on Patrick and go help Faith. He wanted to be with Faith.
He hadn’t realized how long he’d been sitting there until Patrick strolled up to his door.
“Dude.” His voice sounded muffled through the glass. “Are you drunk already? The bar is over there. This is—“ A look came over Patrick’s face. He darted a glance at the hardware store, then looked back at Grant. “Ooooh, wait.” He pointed to the store. “Is this the Faith you’re crushing on?”
“Shut up.” Grant climbed from the car, increasingly annoyed. “Just tell the whole town.”
Patrick chuckled and turned in a slow circle. “Bro, look around you.”
True, there wasn’t a damn sole on the frozen street. And, yes, that just irritated Grant more.
“Huh,” Patrick said, an amused look of confusion crossing his face. “I didn’t see that one coming.”
Grant wondered what Patrick saw that he didn’t. “Why not?”
He shrugged. “You’ve always gone for the hoity-toity type.”
“How do you know who I date?”
Now Patrick lifted his brows. “Hel-lo. Have you not heard of this new fangled thing called the Internet? Have you also not noticed that you are one of the top fifty best-paid NHL players in the nation? I keep telling everyone I’m not as dumb as I look. Nobody listens. Anyway, I’m sure you’re already aware of this, but you may want to know for future reference that every time you date someone, the press wants to sneak into your bedroom and take pictures. So, yeah, I know you go for the high-maintenance chicks. Faith’s real pretty. She’s just kinda...I don’t know, simple, in comparison. But then we are in Holly, North Carolina, not Washington, D.C. What’s a guy gonna do?”
While Grant was surprised and, yeah, even pleased, that his brother had developed enough interest in Grant’s career to actually look him up, there was also enough truth to Patrick’s statement to turn Grant downright surly. But he couldn’t blame anyone for that except himself.
Still, he shoved Patrick’s shoulder in the direction of the bar. “Do you want me to buy you a tonic and lime or not.”
“Ho, look at you, big spender. But I actually prefer root beer now-a-days. Think you could manage a root beer?”
Grant laughed.
“And maybe some pretzels?” Patrick asked.
“Okay, now you’re pushing it.”
Patrick thought that was hilarious and laughed his way toward Yuletide Spirits.
Grant followed, grinning reluctantly. His brother had come back from the brink of disaster and not just survived, but thrived. It seemed like he might have even become fun again.
“And, for the record,” Patrick said as they came up to the bar’s front door, “I’m all for you looking at changing the type of women you see.” He paused at the steps and turned to Grant. “My girlfriend and I have been together six months. She’s nothing like the women I usually drifted toward, but she’s at least half the reason I was successful at rehab, about twenty percent of the reason I’m still sober and accounts for ninety-five percent of my happiness. She’s the best fuckin’ thing that ever happened to me.”
Grant grinned. “Hey, man. That’s great.”
Patrick nodded and continued up the stairs to the doors. “Faith’s always been a real nice girl. Even when I wasn’t so nice to her, she believed I could be and do better. She’s worth taking a long, hard look at, bro.”
His brother pushed into the bar, but Grant stood there a moment, absorbing the wisdom his little brother had just bestowed upon him. Grant already knew Faith was beautiful—inside and out. But his brother’s experience of internal transformation with the love of the right woman, spoke to something Grant had been trying to pin down for the last couple of days.
When Grant got a minute to himself, he was going to have to start thinking about his own life and how he might manage to pull his head out of his ass.